Social activist and former MP Iryna Farion, who was murdered in Lviv on Friday, was a controversial figure, but Ukrainians are mourning her death.
KIEV On Friday evening, an assassination took place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which shocked the whole of Ukraine. A man in his twenties, who is still being sought, shot and killed a former member of parliament by Iryna Farion.
According to the investigation, the murder may have political, social and personal motives. Farion was a controversial figure in Ukraine who caused a stir with his statements.
Farion was a philologist by training and worked as a Ukrainian language teacher at a university in Lviv. He was known as a fanatical advocate of Ukrainianism.
In 2012, Farion was elected as a Member of Parliament. In parliament, he opposed all initiatives that restricted the use of the Ukrainian language. He criticize Ukrainians who give their children “too Russian names”.
In 2018, he urged to kick every “Moscow” i.e. Russian-speaking Ukrainian in the jaw so that Ukraine wins the war against Russia.
The uproar eventually led to dismissal from the university
When journalists revealed in 2013 that Farion was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he did not comment on the information and uttered the joke that became famous: “Eagles don’t confess to hyenas”.
Fario called a few times the LGBT community as “sick people” and “an unnatural phenomenon”.
The biggest commotion happened last year, when Farion said that Russian-speaking members of the Azov Regiment cannot be considered Ukrainian and that Russian-speaking soldiers are a disgrace to the Ukrainian army.
In Lviv, students organized a demonstration, as a result of which Farion was dismissed from the university.
The finger of the Ukrainians is pointing at Russia
The murder touches and unites Ukrainians deeply, despite Farion’s contradictory personality.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi published by On his Telegram channel, he expressed his condolences to the victim’s relatives and said that among the versions being investigated is that Russia is behind the murder.
The version leading to Russia dominates the social media posts of ordinary Ukrainians. Farion’s murder is considered to be a response to the assassinations of pro-war activists organized by Ukraine, with the aim of destabilizing the unity of Ukrainians.
The murder also reminded us that if Russia is really behind it, it means that the Russian security service is still effective even in western Ukraine and that airstrikes are not the only thing to watch out for.